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On My Mind.Sat, 06 Feb 2016 21:17:31 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.1827.5 km walkhttp://www.samuelnova.com/2016/02/06/27-5-km-walk/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2016/02/06/27-5-km-walk/#commentsSat, 06 Feb 2016 21:17:31 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=554
Today I did something crazy (for me), I decided to go for a long walk, longer than normally, from home to Basel and back again, ending up with 27.5 km in 5 hours. More than I ever walked in one go.

It sure helped that we had a lovely weather today, with 8 to 14 degrees Celsius, blue sky and not that windy. But the walk idea didn’t come out of the blue; I had planned to do it. So decided to do a few notes and finally do another blog post.

I used Endomondo on my iPhone for tracking:

Walking

I have started to walk more often as a way to improve my walk and prepare more for the Spartan Race, during November and December 2015 I increased the distance and did several 5+ km walks, did a few 7 and 8 km and one 11 km. This year I also been walking but longest was 5.5 km (Yes, It track all these). I also started running more, with longest none stop run been 2 km (I was never a running so this is a big achievement for me). I decided to put myself to the test and go for a longer walk, an idea I had last year but actually, I doubled the distance.

The plan was to walk to Basel and then see how I felt when I arrived, if I was wasted then I would just take the train back home. I also decided that if I had any form of pain or didn’t feel like it then I could always bail out earlier and just head home. At the same time I wanted to keep a good speed, aimed for 5 km to 5.5 km per hour (average).

Walking to Basel

So just before 11:00 today I left for my walk to Basel. I quickly ended up at the Rhein (the river) and walked along it, some of the path would qualify for trail track, with lots of stones and uneven terrain, so here my speed dropped a bit. Things went pretty well, no knee problems, no problems with my calves (issue I had a lot earlier when running or walking fast). I did some short breaks, to get water and such and at 10 km I checked my left foot, had some blisters but continued.

After 14 km I arrived (with a big smile) at the main translation in Basel. Quickly went to the toilet, then bought some more water and some bread from the bakery (with chocolate) and off I went again. At this stage I did consider to take the train as both feet started to hurt from blisters but I was stubborn and continued.

I decided not to follow the Rhein on the way back and just stay at the road, not that nice but a bit shorter.

At around 20 km my feet where killing me, both of them. Also had some pain in the hips but otherwise doing fine. No knee issue at all and no pain in the muscles (big surprise). I had some water and sweets and off I went again.

Arriving back home

Finally after 27.5 km I arrive to the local super market and stopped the tracking. Quickly went shopping (I knew that after I get home I would not be leaving again) and walked slowly (and in pain) home. Thanks god that the lift/elevator worked when I got home, I was not in the mood for 10 floors :-)

Made a smoothie, had a nice bath and then took care of my feet, it was a good move to buy some plaster for blisters. Big blisters on the bottom of the foot and some on the sides, I’ll spare you for pictures :-)

Now I just walk around in a funny way on the side of the feet. No knee pain, no store leg muscles (That will come tomorrow I guess), have some pain in right ankle, probably from walking wrong, hip and back are also sore.

So all in all a success I have to say. Now a few notes on what I did right and what I did wrong.

What I did right

I’m happy to report that I did do something right today :-)

Shirt / jacket
I was wearing my long armed running shirt and my running jacket. Due to the nice weather I was not wearing the jacked 80% of the time. For some of my previous walks I have been wearing my normal jacket, way thinker and heavy, I would have been wasted with that one.

Backpack
I borrowed a small string backpack from my son, was perfect for the things I took with me and also had space for the jacket.

Water / food
I had a bottle of water with me that I refilled in town, so around 2 liters of water for the walk (Probably too little). Also took some protein bars and an energy gel with me.

No music / podcast
Since I used the iPhone for tracking I didn’t want to use the power too quickly so no music for me. Was good as I could concentrate more on my walk and what was happening around me, at the same time let the mind fly. Five hours of meditation in a way.

What I did wrong

First time I went for such a walk so sure something went bad.

Socks
Before leaving I considered wearing some of the socks I have for running but decided to wear normal think socks. I been wearing these for the other walks but they are NOT suitable for long walks. My feet hate me now ;-) I’m sure this caused more blisters.

Shoes
I was wearing my hiking shoes, very nice shoes but could have been one size bigger I guess, they are also rather heavy for such walks but stable. If I had taken my running shoes then I’m sure it would have went better.

Jeans
Finally, the jeans. I just wear normal Levi’s Jeans, didn’t cause any issue but some thinner pants would have been good, maybe some compression tights.

Cap / sun lotion
Been bald and been in direct sun for several hours is not the coolest thing, unless you remember a cap or sun lotion, which I didn’t do. Got a bit red but nothing bad but that will not happen again.

A thought

During the walk I realised that time and distance passes in a strange way when you walk. Several times I thought, oh, I was just passing that ‘landmark’ just before but that was actually 45 minutes ago and several km behind me. Oh, I just had some water, nope, that’s 30 min ago. Time just pasted so quickly, I mean, 5 hours on the road!

The route

Map from Endomondo of the route I took today

Next time

I’m not planning to repeat this walk in the very near future but could imagine in a month time (or earlier) to go for another long walk, now that I learned a few lessons so should go smoother next time. I might not walk that far next time but time will tell.

So that’s my story of todays walk, let’s see if my body hates me tomorrow :-)

Thanks for reading.

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2016/02/06/27-5-km-walk/feed/0Weight loss #5, reviewhttp://www.samuelnova.com/2015/08/22/weight-loss-5-review/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/08/22/weight-loss-5-review/#commentsSat, 22 Aug 2015 11:09:32 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=541
It has not been more than a year since I started to change my life, I’m here thinking about living healthier, change in diet and do more sport. This is a short summary of what happened since then.

From 97kg to 85kg

My weight spiked to 97 kg in August 2014 and I then decided that things had to change.

I wrote last year in August about a bet (can be found here), to drop 5 kg down in weight which was achieved pretty quickly, on the 13th of September, just a month after the bet I wrote about it (can be found here). Finally I reported in November that I got be low 85 kg (can be found here and later here). I then expected to drop down 80kg in the first two but that didn’t happen.

Most of the success with weight loss was mental and also to change to Low Carb eating. Sure it was a big change food-wise but I haven’t felt that great for many years, more energy and the pleasure of seeing the weight drop regular. Starting doing fitness, both home training (body weight training) but also joining a great Gym was success for me.

Signing up for Spartan Race in April was also a great feeling, that I was going to take part in a event. In the past it was friends or people I worked with who did various events but suddenly it was ME. The motivation I got to train and participate in the race was great, unfortunately it didn’t work out as I hoped (see my Spartan Report here).

One big setback was the knee injury I suffered early February (report after 6 weeks can be found here). This limited both my level of security at the Spartan Race and also limited how much I could train up to (and after) the event. But at least things are progressing very well and I’m still aiming for the 2016 April race.

Getting below 80kg

I was around 81-82 kg for a long time but first after my knee operation I dropped below 80kg. Hard to say how much was due to muscle mass that I lost during the 6 weeks where I couldn’t use the leg. I’m now allowed to use the leg with full weight and so far no change in weight.

I have stayed on low carb most of the time but during the 6 weeks with crutches I failed often in the evening, too much hassle cooking when not been able to move freely around the kitchen. Now things have changed, I’m walking 100% without crutches so I’m back to normal low carb cooking.

I do fail from time to time (Not that I consider it failing really), such as when my son bought cake home from the bakery where he works :-) (Highly appreciated). But the other days are from 1400 to 1800 kcal and below 50 gram of carb, with around 90-140 grams of protein. I’m trying to follow the “30 within 30” (Check Tim Ferriss blog entry, check point #6 or read his 4 hour body book). So 30 grams of protein within the first 30 minutes of been awake, unfortunate I’m slow in the morning and need my shower before I do anything but still try to get at least 30 grams of protein at breakfast.

The last few days my weight has been hovering around 79kg (plus minus 200g). I thought I would be excited when I saw < 80kg but I didn’t, probably because I expected it to happen with loosing muscles.

Current weight, got to say this was after a nice big breakfast and mid day.

Next step, 75kg

I’m now aiming for 75 kg that I don’t think will be a big problem, dropping 5 kg from a steady weight is doable. Sure it will require focus, stricter low carb and even more fitness but I’m ready for all that. It will only do my good in the long run, so lots of motivation. Dropping more weight will make fitness more enjoyable, it will make Spartan Race easier (it will never be easy). Only bad side effect, I will need to buy new cloth. Already went from size 38″ jeans to 34″ (Used to be 30″ in the past, like 18 years ago). But that’s a side effect I happily take.

What after 75kg?

First my goal was 90 kg, then 85kg, then 80kg and now 75kg, where shall it all end? Do I go mentally and endanger my health by deciding I want to drop to 50kg, nah, a promise: that is not going to happen :-)

I do have some specific goals in mind but I need to refine them a bit and make a plan on how to reach them, so that will be for another blog post.

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/08/22/weight-loss-5-review/feed/0Knee OP – ACL reconstruction, week #6http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/08/14/knee-op-acl-reconstruction-week-6/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/08/14/knee-op-acl-reconstruction-week-6/#commentsFri, 14 Aug 2015 17:58:41 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=537I didn’t post any update to my two previous ACL entries (find #1 here and #2 here) as not much happened. Mainly just been doing my knee exercises and limp around on the crutches. But this week I went for my 6-week checkup at the hospital and that sure changed a lot :-)

Generally I felt I was progressing nicely and the physiotherapist was also very happy with the results, so I was excited to hear what the doctor (Same that operated me). So after getting 3 x-rays done I had a good talk with him. He explained what he saw on the x-rays and he was very happy with what he saw, all looked good ;-) One clear thing was the 2-3 cm screw that is attached to my lower leg. We then went through around 12 pictures that was done during the operation, all from inside the knee. Very impressive to learn about what they can see and what can be done.

I mentioned to him that I was tired of the crutches, fine he said, you don’t need them anymore. I was just sitting there with big eyes asking “Really? Sure about that?” So he told me to get up and take some steps. Well, I stood and nothing happened, I just couldn’t walk. Was all mental he told me, the meniscus was healed enough and I still had enough strength so I should be able to. I’m also allowed to put full weight on the leg again. Later I was able to do a few steps but I felt very unsecure.

After examining the knee he told me he was happy with the progress, all seemed fine. I have to work more on bending the knee, until that day I was only allowed to bend it 90 degrees and when I got to that point it hurt. So the goal for my next check up (6 weeks time) is to reach 110-120 degrees! That will require a lot of work for me and I still need to go to physiotherapy once to twice per week.

Now a few days later I already been to physiotherapy twice and I’m progressing surprisingly quickly. Here at home I only use one crutch sometimes when walking around, mainly after sitting or laying for some time it is needed, otherwise I can (and I may) walk around without crutches also. I do limp a bit but it also happens that I walk without any real limp. For longer walk I still use both crutches but way different from before where I was only rolling on one foot, now it is with full weight, so no more been tired in the arms.

Also bit change going from been very careful/nervous about not putting weight on the leg to be able to use it fully. Going from 10kg to up to 80 kg weight is a big difference and since my knee/leg is rather weak I need to train the muscles a lot, crazy how much of a month un-use means.

But one of the nicest things is that I can walk around with coffee, dinner and such. No more putting pizza on a plate and place it on the floor, and then push it around with the crutches…. Yes, I did that a few times :-)

Also been able to go shopping on my own is nice, put the crutches up in the shopping cart and off I go. I just need to keep in mind that I can’t carry any extra bags, all needs to fit into my back-bag.

So next step is to increase muscle, stability, increase bending, so I will continue doing my daily exercises 3-5 times per day. I have been very good at that for the last 6 weeks, not skipping a single day. In 6-8 weeks I should be able to start jogging again and do more exercises, so I still have hope for the April Spartan Race :-)

Staples

Main news are that I got the staples removed from the knee, all 20 of them. The assistant at the doctor removed them pretty quickly without any pain, went quicker and smoother than expected. But then again, for some reason I thought they went deeper.

Before removal:

After removal:

This was 2 days ago and things are already looking better now :-)

The wound is healing very nicely without any complications but the knee is still pretty swollen.

Say hello to Fat Knee and Normal Knee

On the left side of the kneecap I have a numb area, meaning there are no feelings on the skin but the doctor had warned me about this, that they had to cut through a nerve. So now when I scratch or “drum” the fingers there it just feels strange. Maybe this will change in time but if not, then who cares :-)

I was finally able to take a real bath after the staples got out, that was damn nice. But it is a lager task for me to get into the bath since I’m not allowed to lift the knee/leg on it’s own, so I always have to lift it with my hands. I bet it looks very funny when I get into the bath but I promise, there will be no video of that.. ever :-)

Back into training

I’m doing the daily exercises that I have been assigned by the physiotherapist, so around 3-5 times each day. Nothing major but very important for quick and perfect recovery. I have also started to do some arm training, mainly the left arm that is weak after a accident a few years ago with a zipline (Tendon got over stretched).

But it is time to pump up the training.

I’m of course limited with what I can do due to the knee but I’ll be putting a small home program together, mainly upper body workout with weights. I’m not even allowed to do my favorite exercise, pushups, due to the pressure on the knee but I’m allowed to do pull-ups :-) I will need to rearrange my training area a bit but not much and I will also not invest in any new equipment. After all, I do play to the gym in the near future, if all goes well then I will be back late August :-) but also with very limited exercise program.

In case recovery goes fine then I need to be ready for Spartan Race in April 2016, so I better not become too lazy. So time to STFU (Spartan The Fuck Up).

Whatever carb

I have not been following my Low Carb diet completely since I returned from the hospital. Well, mainly breakfasts are low carb, almost always an omelet :-)

I started to do these different than before, now adding tuna and/or feta cheese, adding bacon or red kidney beans from time to time.

The other meals have been a bit of everything, sometimes partly low carb and sometimes not at all. I had pasta several times but at least I feel I do eat less than I did in the past. The reason for not staying strict on low carb is that I need things to be easy, tasks such as cleaning/sorting spinach, then dry the, cut them and then add them to the meal and then clean up afterwards are just too much for me right now, everything goes slower with crutches (But I don’t complain, I know it is just for a short time).

But one meal I did a few times is broccoli, cauliflower and gyros (meat):

This can then be put in a Tupperware box and transported to any place I want to be, such as outside on the balcony (Wearing a bag around my head, with plate, fork, food-box, beer… must look funny).

If this strange combination of low and high carb food have made me gain weight or not is not clear, it might very well be that I lost weight as I’m loosing muscles in the leg. I’ll check this soon :-)

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/07/19/knee-op-acl-reconstruction-week-2/feed/0Knee OP – ACL reconstruction, week #1http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/07/12/knee-op-acl-reconstruction-week-1/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/07/12/knee-op-acl-reconstruction-week-1/#commentsSun, 12 Jul 2015 14:56:19 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=468I have now been home for about a week since my knee operation. So about 1.5 week after the operation as I only stayed 3 and a half-day at the clinic.

The operation

This was my first operation really, so I was not really sure what to expect or had any idea about the whole thing but I have to say that things went rather smooth. It sure helped that all the people I met at the hospital was always in good mood, smiling and very friendly.

I had a spinal anesthesia, didn’t even realise when they gave me that one as they put me to sleep for a few minutes, so I had no feelings in my legs while they operated. During the operation I was half awake, I had the choice to be fully knocked out but I wanted to be awake. I was not able to follow the operation on the screen but maybe that was the best :-) I did feel the drilling and when they hammered into the bones, I could also hear when they stapled the wound up together. I later counted 20 staples was used, that’s going to leave a scar or 3.

Operation took around 2 hours, where the ACL was fully reconstructed and the Meniscus sewed together (Not layman’s terms but how I understood it). After that they closed the wounds with staples and put bandage around my leg and put it in a solid/fixed brace.

Not been able to bend the knee at all did give me a few challenges the first few days. Since I both have ACL reconstruction and Meniscus fixed I’m not allowed to put more than 10-15 kg of pressure on the leg (so no standing/walking) and not allowed to bend the knee more than 90 degrees, for at least 6 weeks.

After the operation I was wheeled over in the “wake up” room. I heard someone mentioning coffee, so I was quick in asking when I would be allowed to drink coffee again. So around 5 minutes later I enjoyed a double espresso, oh yeah, that was good.

The stay

I shared room at the clinic with 2 out guys (one got replaced), all kind and we had a few good talks but otherwise it was rather boring. I had planned to read a lot, listen to audio books, watch some Spartan Up Podcasts but only did a bit of it all. Otherwise the time just passed by doing nothing. Sure didn’t help that we had the warmest time in Switzerland for I don’t know how long, with up to 38 degrees Celsius. We had rolled down in front of the windows all day, windows closed and a fan/ventilator running none stop. Late evening we opened windows to get some fresh air in, but just laying in bed all the time wearing shorts and nothing else and sweating, which ruined the fun ;-) I wasn’t able to sleep well during my stay; the lights and noises disturbed me.

I had visits from the physiotherapist 4 times, checking the knee and how much I was able to bend it and how well I was walking on the crutches. She was happy with how things progressed, so that was good to hear. While staying in bed I had a machine that worked on the knee, moving the food back and forth so that the knee would bend, to start with only 40 degrees but at the end I was able to do 80 degrees :-)

Learning to use the crutches was rather easy but I was rather unsecure to start with but that went away quickly, I even went on the stairs (accompanied by the physiotherapist). That was also easier than expected but still not easy.

At the start I had to call for help each time I had to get up, just to make sure all was well with me. Soon after I was able to get around on my own but I did have one encounter with circulation problems that almost made me faint but I was able to ring for help and sit down, that was a bit scary as I never experienced such a thing before.

Getting home

I was able to leave the hospital earlier than expected as all healed fine and I had good movement in the knee. It was great to come home but that gave me new challenges. Got to plan everything when I move around the apartment, how to bring food from kitchen to eating table (turnout out to be easy), taking coffee with me to TV or the PC but for that I found a nice old mug that I bought many years ago :-) But finally getting to the TV, with coffee and then realise that I forgot something is annoying but I can only laugh at it and get moving again.

I very lucky to have my kids, ex-wife and friends who help out when needed, sure make it all a lot easier :-) I mean, how do I shop on my own. So far they helped and I hope they will help the next 5 weeks.

The day after returning home I got a more flexible brace for the knee, that allows me to bend the knee (max 90 degrees) and that helped a lot, I can now sit on a chair, on the couch and so forth.

Sleeping is also a lot better with the new brace, and sleep I sure do. The last week I had more naps that I expected, maybe still aftermath of the operation and of course the normal ‘walking’ around takes more energy than before.

I’m not allowed to lift the leg (from bed down to floor) without holding on to it with my hands, due to habits this can easy happen, that I want to move and then just move the leg as I always did, as I do have the strength to do so, so this requires some mental training but also here I’m progressing nicely.

Training

I’m going to the physiotherapy twice per week, so far mainly to reduce the swollenness of the knee and check the state of the knee. I have 3 exercises that I do here at home to improve the bend/muscle/stretch of the knee. I have one golden rule regarding the exercises: I do not less or more than what I’m told to do. So 3-5 times I do my exercises and I don’t try to add extra ones that I find on the net, the physiotherapist is in charge here.

The leg changed color a few times, was total yellow one day and was rather swollen but all is turning slowly back to normal, so things are progressing very nice but still a long way to go and here we are talking about month before any real training can happen.

I’m really looking forward to the day I can go swimming again, go for a small jog, go on the bike and so forth, but all that are month away. First I need to get rid of the crutches and then I can move forward.

Spartan Race

In my latest blog post (here) I mentioned that I already signed up for a Spartan Race in April, this is going to be rather tight, if I can make it or not. As the doctor said, he is positive about it but lets take it step by step. My attitude is that if he says NO when we get to that time then it is a NO (I will then go and watch the rest of the team participate) and then I will continue my training for another race a few months later.

So for now I just try to do the training I can do, get more comfortable with the crutches and then return to work and then take it from there. Not much more I can do really.

It’s been around 2.5 month since the race and I wanted to do this write-up several times but typical me, pushing it to “next week” again and again.

Anyway, in April 2015, we (myself and Mario) took part in the Spartan Race in München (Germany). Not only was it race time but also time to visit Mario, first time I got around to go to their place, so we had lots to talk about and all was very enjoyable.

Knee

Unfortunately I had an accident with my knee early February, which for some weeks stopped my training and stopped all running. I did continue strength training and did some nice long walks but no running. I did get an appointment for MRI and my talk with the doctor was scheduled to be after the race.

The knee was my biggest worry at the race, if my knee could handle it or not, turned out to go fine and I had no knee pain after the race to my big surprise.

The trip to München

I haven’t been to München for many years and in the past I never got around to see much of the city, as it was all about work. I went by train and got picked up by Mario at the station, I stayed at their place outside of the city, so yeah, and again I didn’t see much of the city this time either.

Starting with a good coffee :-)

Play area for kids in the train! Nope, I didn’t go there :-)

I’m ready for a long train ride

I don’t know who hates us that much but for some reason we had thunder and heavy rain the day before the race and the day after the race we had super nice sunny weather. This resulted in a cold day (8-10 degrees) on race day. But also gave us time for BBQ on the day after the race, so it was not all bad.

The race

We arrived at the Olympia Park, weather long pants and even jackets. Was pretty awesome there, lots of crazy people, good mood, just what I hoped for. Registration went very smooth and we had enough time to see the first heat go off before we changed to our race gear.

Before the race. Chuck Norris (Mario) and myself

Damn, that was cold but mood was high so all fine. At around 10:15 we went to the start line, sure there is a 1.80m wall to get over first but I ‘cheated’ and walked around. Decided that if my knee was going to fail then not before the start line, I wanted to get that far at least. The MC at the start area was doing a hell of a job, getting people moving and motivating “Who are you today?” SPARTANS.. “What’s your war cry” AROO AROO AROO and so forth ;-)

Generally almost all the helpers were in good mood and made nice jokes and were very friendly. We also met several friendly participants along the track, asking if all is well and gave us thumbs up.

Obstacles

Off we went, first a bit running, easy part (but Mario almost managed to fall anyway.. good fun). Then came the HILL.

Typical, I got up as last of our group and what do I see, a photograph :-)

Then some running and some walls, was very easy but I took it very easy when getting down on the other side, no jumping. Was nervous about my knee. Then more hill walking and we reach the top and there came one obstacle that I hoped would not be there.. The memory test. It works like this:

Based on your last two digits of your race number you have to remember a sequence of a word and some numbers.

When you reach the finish line you will be asked to repeat what you had to remember.

If you fail, then burpees.

Anyway, I feared this one, had a quick look at the word+numbers, played with “story” to remember and well, I had to remember: Tango 121-3096. Shocking, I can still remember it.

Thanks to the helper who shared some of her apple juice with us.

Then we went down the hill, over to wood-log carrying, I did take one of the smaller ones but who cares, was fun but here we already got overtaken by the next heat.

Then some more walls, this time 2 meters tall. I remember I told Mario “I will need help with this one”, so he ran up to help me and I just jumped up and went over on my own, leaving him standing like: WTF Sam

Off into the water (for the first time), just a small walk in some water under a bridge but it was cold (and refreshing).

Then tire jump, where you get a rubber band around your knee and then have to jump through a lot of tires, I walked.. Didn’t feel safe with my knee. Mario went quickly though and had to wait for me (again).

After that a walk and off into the lake we went. Damn, that was cold but no stopping as we just walked in. People where gasping for air. Deeper it went and soon we could not walk but had to swim. Tip for next time, swim early, way quicker than walking.

Monkey bar time. I had trained for this at the gym to be prepared but I sure was not prepared for this. Bars was very high up, I was able to almost get a grip on them when I stood on another bar closer to the ground but no good, the bars was very thick, could not get a hold on them, sure the wet hands did not help. I tried to see if I could get old on them but I failed. So burpee time it was. Mario almost made it but failed just before the end.. also burpees.

Next obstacle was crawling under a net on grass, down some hills and up again. I found going down was harder than up!!

A bit after it was the big bridge, crawling up on a net and over and then down, still a big net. Was easy but required some concentration, felt safe the whole way :-)

Then the one and only water station, was good :-)

Then a little walk and we arrived at the rope climb, I guess we talk about 6 meters, starting in water. I had trained the J and S hook at the gym but I just started climbing up with my arms only and then rested at the nuts using my legs (did that sound wrong?), I guess I made it 2/3 of the way and then I just said to Mario: I’ll do some burpees

Then more walking and off into the ice cold water again

Here we had to go below some wood logs in the water. Getting below the water was freezing cold. At the first two I took a break after each but decided at the last two just to do them quickly, worked better. Then walking 50 meters or so in water and we then had to climb a big net, trick was that people where going up on one side and down on the other, so all had to be done carefully. At the top of this one I didn’t feel safe but after getting over it went smooth.

I’m not sure what temperature the water was, my guess is 5-6 degrees, I did see someone on Youtube saying 3 degrees but I doubt that it was so cold.

Then it was mud time. Crawling through 2 sets of mud, covered with barbed wire. I had expected this to be easier but it was thick mud and it was cold. They had some sprinklers to make it all more went, I got close to them and thought I would just turn into ice…

Got through this and then a walk, I did try to run but failed. Then we entered the stadium; first obstacle was the Hercules heist. No idea how heavy but felt damn heavy. Didn’t help that rope and hands was covered in mud, I almost got mine up to the top, but then the rope slipped and the whole thing fell uncontrolled to the ground :(

Then we went up to the top of the stadium, damn, how many steps can there be in one place! Here I felt the fatigue setting in. Then down again and spear throw. I was SO close, good speed on the spear, right height but it just slipped off the side. So burpees again.

Then again up to the top of the stadium, now I was not feeling well at all, thought I would puke or maybe just faint. We had a good walk to the next obstacle but it just got worse and worse. Was freezing like never before. Got to the next obstacle, which was down/up/down/up from stop to bottom of stadium, carrying a 25 kg sandbag. We didn’t even start on it, was shaking a lot and not doing well. We had seen people sitting with folio covers to get heat but they had none left :( two other racers joined and we all left the course at this point.

We came far but failed and even worse, after this one there was only a few more obstacles:

Mud walk (big container with some mud, looked easy)

8″ wall (2.5 meter)

/ wall with water sprinkler at the top

Fire pit / jump

We later talked about it and if we had been able to get some warmth, if we had been a bit quicker then I’m sure we could have made it. Anyway, we went over to the swim pool and got a nice hot shower, but what a mess we left behind us, dry mud in the cloth exchange area and all muddy in the shower but we where not the only ones.

Later when I found out the state of my knee I was happy that I didn’t try the obstacle where we stopped, all those steps with the extra 25kg could have turned out really bad. But it was hard after the race to see everybody with medals.

I did get my t-shirt and they also gave me the first part of the Trifecta medal but the t-shirt and medal is put away. I’ll first wear the t-shirt when I one day complete a Sprint… Well, I did wear it once:

Around 200 didn’t complete the race (from what I can read out of the final results, they did claim that the even was sold out with 5500 racers but only 4500 is listed on the result page.

What’s next?

Some might say, “So, he tried that and that was it” but nope, we already started talking about the next race on the same day as the race. Later I did some more research and was planning to do a Nordic Race in Denmark and then a Spartan Race in Austria, all in 2015 but all this got dropped the day after…

I had a MRI of the knee and result was that the ACL needs full reconstruction, as the doctor explained; I was lucky that nothing happened at the race and I should avoid races until ACL was fixed. It was up to me if I want the ACL reconstruction; if I want race again then I need it. So it was pretty easy to decide. Operation is set for early July, and then it is time for recovery and rehab. I was told that I should expect around 6-7 month before I can consider races again.

2016 Spartan Race München

The next race in Müchen will take place in April 2016, so would be a great chance to conquer the track (the 2015 track was close to the same as 2014). So I have already signed up for this one. Well, actually we signed up for the race, this time trying to get a bigger team together. This gives me around 8.5 month for getting ready, should do the trick :-)

I’ll report back when there are news….

AROO, AROO, AROO

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/06/30/spartan-race-munchen-2015/feed/1Weight loss #4 & low carb & Spartan Racehttp://www.samuelnova.com/2015/03/06/weight-loss-4-low-carb/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/03/06/weight-loss-4-low-carb/#commentsFri, 06 Mar 2015 22:08:10 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=426It has been awhile since I reported on my weight loss quest, see last post from November 24th, 2014 here Weight loss #3, I also been neglecting posting in my low carb series. So thought it was a good idea to give an update. So time for some talk about weight loss, low carb, Spartan Race and not to forget, some pictures :-)

Progress or not?

Last time I wrote about my weight lost I had just dropped below 85 kg (84.2 kg) and I estimated that I would drop below 80 kg early 2015, well, things didn’t go that way. Not to say that it went the other way but things took longer than planned. We had Christmas which didn’t help much, then a nice weekend trip to Budapest (Was awesome), later a weeks family vacation (Was even more awesome) but most of all, I had several “Not low carb days”.

Vacation with “who cares carb”

After last weeks vacation where I gained 1.3 kg I’m back on low carb. Interesting was that while we went on vacation I didn’t care much about what I had to eat, so some pasta, bread, cake, candy and more of it all again. Most days I also had 1-2 beers, so that I only gained 1.3 kg was a bit of a surprised, I had expected it would have been 2-4 kg. The first few days after vacation I was still having pizza and chocolate but then I dropped down in weight again (low carb FTW), so now I’m actually a bit below the weight I had before vacation.

Back on Low carb

So I’m back on low carb again, kind of missed all the nice food. I decided to drop the weekly low carb reports (Last one can be viewed here). This does not mean that I will stop posting about low carb but how I will continue is not 100% clear yet (ideas are welcome). I’m still doing pictures of the meals, hey, lets have a look at todays meals:

For breakfast I had a simple omelet, just 2 eggs, cheese, ham and some sweet pepper. Simple and good.

For lunch I had what I very often have at work. Some premade salad, sometimes I have some cheese with it but today I decided for cottage cheese and some blackberries for desert.

For dinner I did a mix of spinach, cauliflower, sweet pepper and Shirataki Noodles and some meat. I remember when I first tried the noodles, how much I disliked them but guess my taste is changing slowly.

All very low carb so the day was about to become a < 50 gram of carb when I decided for a snack… Something I been looking for, for some days, green Snickers (Hey, it is green, so must be healthy). Found them today and bought a couple of them.

Damn that one was good, so I had another one :-)

Also had a protein drink (mixed with water) and 12 grams of 100% cocoa chocolate.

All sounds crazy but only adds up to 1650 calories and around 112 grams of carb. So I consider it a okay day :-)

Next phase (Spartan Race)

I have the Spartan Race in München on the 18th of April (so just in 6 weeks), until then the goal is to be below 80 kg. The less kg to run around with the easier the race will be (At least in Theory). I recently had a small accident at the gym where I fell down and twisted my knee, imagine if I haven’t lost the 13 kg, then it could have turned out way worse. But as a friend said, had I not lost the 13 kg then I would probably not have been doing the crazy things I tried..

The plan will be to continue with low carb (Without all the snacks) and increase fitness in the weeks up to the race. Sure the knee injury didn’t help but things are progressing nicely. Still feel the pain when I walk down stairs or if I sit wrong. I’m also avoiding exercises that involves squat & running. So no burpees for me for now :-( The worst part about the injury was the mental setback, from been able to do burpees and increasing the amount, been able to run longer and longer on the treadmill to sudden not been able to do any of these things but at the same time it fuelled the motivation and focus on improving.

So time to do some evening pushups and pull-ups #aroo

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/03/06/weight-loss-4-low-carb/feed/2Low carb week #52http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/01/03/low-carb-week-52/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/01/03/low-carb-week-52/#commentsSat, 03 Jan 2015 18:01:22 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=407Time for another week of low carb (last one can be viewed here Week #51), well, again a week late with posting it but Christmas came in the way (or so). So lets start out with something sweet. I have always loved chocolate, used to buy lots of M&M’s. Anyway, since I went on low carb I have more or less stopped with chocolate, to my big surprise this was easier than expected. But I still want some chocolate from time to time. Then I found out that the higher the cacao part of the chocolate was, the lower the carb. YES was my reaction :-) But what I didn’t count on was the calories often go up, like HIGH UP. Anyway, tried some 80% (yammy), then some 92% that I didn’t like that much, was just too dry. But then… I found 100%.

So ordered 5 of them, together with 5 packages of 80% cacao chocolate. To my surprise 100 grams of this chocolate (one package only got 70 grams) has 638 calories, I mean, HALLO, that is more than a big fat tasty burger :-) but at the same time it only contains 9 grams of carb. Can’t win them all I guess. First time I tasted it I almost spat it out again with the thought: Why didn’t I learn from the 92% one.. Right away told my sister she could have some. Sorry, sister, I’m slowly changing my mind. Taking 1-2 pieces of it at a time is actually pretty good now. No way I could eat a whole package of this one, not like a Ritter Sport :-)

23rd of December

24th of December

Christmas time (yeah, we celebrate on the 24th.. and 25th…). A day full of snacks, idea was to eat well before going for family dinner so I didn’t spoil myself with high carb food. Well, I failed.

But before i failed I had this new protein bar that I came across recently. Still a bit high in carb with 25 grams for a single bar, but I just love coconut. I remember standing at the fridge and think if I should go for a bounty or this new bar. I went with the new bar, thinking: Oh, it is also coconut, so will be similar. Ah, failed again, total chewy and not sweet at all but still nice.

27th of December

Yeah, not more about Christmas, but I can say we had nice food all the days and we had plenty. But we didn’t overeat (as Danish people often do at Christmas) but it wasn’t food made with low carb in mind all the time.

So back on low carb diet and starting with omelet for breakfast.

I started to wonder if there was a “breakfast” life before low carb. Beyond cereal.

Lunch: Just some iceberg salad with cucumber, tomato, sweet pepper and some tuna. Only 270 calories and 24 grams of carb.

28th of December, baking time again

Last time I baked bread it was a nice change and was good bread but the slices were too small for sandwiches. So I gave it another try, with nice success.

Dinner time, high in calories and low in carb :-)

Just have to be careful with the bread and it got lots of calories. Just these 3 slices got 374 calories, so with some cheese and a low carb yogurt my dinner ended on 800 calories and 16 grams of carb. That’s half of my goal of daily calorie intake. Other issue I had with the different bread I have tried is that the bread is always humid, never dries out and therefor isn’t eatable for many days. Quickly get covered with mold :-(

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2015/01/03/low-carb-week-52/feed/1Low carb week #51http://www.samuelnova.com/2014/12/27/low-carb-week-51/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2014/12/27/low-carb-week-51/#commentsSat, 27 Dec 2014 12:14:16 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=387After my little series of daily low carb posts (post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, post #5, post #6 and post #7) I wanted to do a few more days but got away from it, then decided to do a week report, now one week too late I do the first one, so will be for week 51 of 2014.

Main reason to change it in to a weekly blog post was that I spend too much time every evening (and often too late) and actually, I often had the same to eat every day, so 7 blog posts with 7 times more or less same breakfast, not that cool really.

So I will from now on just show a few meals for a week, so no more daily pictures. Oh, this also makes it easier for me to cheat ;-)

So let’s get started with breakfast on the 15th of December.

15th of December

Breakfast

Yeah, no surprise. Omelet, cheese and ham, some sweet pepper and tomato. Took the picture before I ‘closed’ the omelet.

Dinner

Easy dinner: some meat from evening before, plus some vegi Quorn. Meat mixed with some cauliflower rice (Becoming one of my favorites), spinach, broccoli, sweet pepper and some sauce.

17th of December (Shirataki & bread time)

Lunch, 400 calories and around 7 grams of carb (+ dressing)

Decided to keep it easy for lunch, so salad with some mozzarella.

But for the dinner I did a bit more, broccoli and mixed together meat, onions, sweet pepper, spinach and some Shirataki noodles.

478 calories and 36 grams of carb. Most of the carb was in the broccoli.

A word about Shirataki.

Not really sure if it is correct to call it noodles. I do have Shirataki rice and spaghetti also but to be honest, it has nothing to do with noodles, rice or spaghetti. I do use it as a pasta/rice replacement but it taste nothing like the real thing. When you open the bag to get the liquid out (total different from pasta) it stinks of fish, really bad smell. Then after rinse with water a few times, cook them on the pan, mix a lot of good stuff in. Next thing that is rather different is that it is really chewy, think octopus or calamari. But hey, it got almost no calories and no carb…

The first few times I had it I swore that I would never buy it again, but ended up buying some “pasta” Shirataki. The meal this day was the best I ever had with this Shirataki pasta. So I did not give up on it yet.

Low carb bread

I baked flax seed bread a few times, very special bread but I do like it but when I came across some bread mixtures with low carb I had to give it a try.

So here I made the first one, add water to the mixture, mix it :-) and then let it stand for an hour. Bake in oven for 50 minutes and that’s it. Reminds me a bit of the bread we get in Denmark, brown bread with lots of grain (We also get that here in Switzerland)

19th of December

Another day, another omelet:

A typical Sam breakfast (Just no bacon this time)

For lunch I brought some of the bread I made the evening before. Since the slices where rather small I skipped making real sandwiches (Going to get a new bread-form). So just bread and cheese, quick and I could eat it at the Mac :-)

516 calories and only 6 carb, hard to beat :-)

21st of December

Sunday brunch time, so a omelet with 3 eggs and a bit extra, such as bacon, kiwi, lots of spinach, damn that was good :-)

Breakfast/brunch with 600 calories and just 18 grams of carb, oh yeah, will do that again.. and again…

Had another nice shake for lunch, together with some low carb bread :-)

So a good weekend; did cheat one day with a wrap from McDonalds. Thought I would be “wise” and not have a big tasty burger as my son had. Turned out that my warp had 2 grams less carb than his burger, that will teach me. Anyway, was a good wrap ;-)

Weight dropped 1.1 kg that week, but I also had a small spike the weekend before. so all went after plan.

]]>http://www.samuelnova.com/2014/12/27/low-carb-week-51/feed/1Low Carb week, Day 7http://www.samuelnova.com/2014/12/14/low-carb-week-day-7/
http://www.samuelnova.com/2014/12/14/low-carb-week-day-7/#commentsSun, 14 Dec 2014 22:18:18 +0000http://www.samuelnova.com/?p=377With this post 7 of my little series I reached ‘the end’ (Previous posts in this new series can be found here post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, post #5, post #6) But I will probably do one or two days more, since the previous two days wasn’t that low carb. It sounds a bit as if I will stop on low carb but that’s not the case. I have been on low carb for a long time and I see the results and surely I will continue. I will also continue with low carb posts from time to time, but let’s get to today first. So this was my day 7 in my little series; Sunday the 14th of December 2014.

Breakfast

Guess what… I had an omelet again ;-)

Just two eggs today, with spinach, cheese and some fish (Pangasius). Inside the omelet I had more fish but it was a bit dry so not the biggest success.

445 calories

Lunch

For lunch I just had 200 grams salmon. Not more, not less. The salmon had just about 2 grams of carb and 370 calories. That must count as low carb :-) Just for the record, I love salmon, so I really enjoyed it.

Dinner

No beer, no pizza today.

But this feast:

Just 404 calories in this meal.

Piece of meat with broccoli, cauliflower-rice, spinach, sweet pepper and to avoid it been too dry, some sauce (pre-made). Could have used a glass of red-wine but had to settle with some water.

Snacks

Yeah, no snacks today except a few small home made cookies :-)

Was about to finish this post when I realised that I’m still a bit hungry and have 688 calories left today and only had 49 grams of carb. So today ended with 200 grams of cottage cheese.

Nutrition information for the day

Today is very different from yesterday, got 512 remaining calories. Ended up with a total of 1395, so a good day :-) I’m BACK.